A Baltimore Circuit Court Judge is expected to decide on Thursday if the five defendants with charges related to the Brooklyn Day Mass shooting last summer will stand trial together.
Aaron Brown, 18, and Tristan Brian Jackson, 19, are charged alongside three minors for a total of 142 charges, including dozens of charges of attempted first-degree murder.
On July 2nd, hundreds of people gathered to attend the annual Brooklyn Day Block party at the Brooklyn Homes housing project in South Baltimore. Hours after midnight, shots rang out and the party descended into chaos and gunfire. Two people were killed: Aaliayh Gonzalez, 18, a recent high-school graduate from Anne Arundel County and Kylis Fagbemi, 20, a young father. It is the worst mass-shooting in the city’s recent history.
Prosecutors first filed to try the defendants together in October.
“Superficially this may make joinder appear unwieldy and even individual trials difficult and complex. However, the reality is that all the charges in these cases stem from the mass shooting perpetrated by defendants in a single community over the course of a few minutes,” wrote Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Dunty in a filing on Friday.
“Tristan Jackson will only obtain a fair and impartial trial if his case is tried alone,” wrote Amanda Dollar, the public defender representing Jackson.
Roya Hanna, who represents Brown, told The Baltimore Sun that she plans to argue against joining the cases.
All three minors were separately denied requests to have their cases heard in juvenile court.